Wood plug for nail or other holes



(No Model.)

J. R. LITTLE & G. T. STODDARD.

WOOD PLUG FOR NAIL OR OTHER HOLES. No. 370,200.

Patented Sept. 20, 1887 PETERS Phnhvbthognphcr, Walhinx'nn. D. C

.NITE TATES ATENT rsicn.

JOHN R. LITTLE AND CALVIN 'I. STODDARD, OF \VEST STEWARTSTOWN, ASSIGNOR OF ON E-THIRD TO JAMES I. PARSONS, OF OOLEBROOK, NE\V HAMPSHIRE.

WOOD PLUG FOR NAIL OR OTHER HOLES.

$PEC'IPICA'I'ION forming part of Letters Patent No. 370,200, dated September 20, 1887. Application filed August 5,1886. Serial No. 210,064. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, JOHN R. LITTLE and CALVIN T. STODDARD, citizens of the United States, residing at WVest Stewartstown, in the county of Coos and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in \Vood Plugs for N ail or other Holes; and we do hereby declare the following to bee. full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Our invention consists in a novel means for plugging up nail-holes or otherwise-damaged places in wood and for other useful purposes, as will be hereinafter described, whereby the surface of the plugged wood and the surface of the plug may be made to harmonize and present an uninterrupted design of graining and shade of color, and when desired ornamental designs of inlaid work may be produced of different colors.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a perspective view of one plug. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a set of plugs made from a board and connected at their tops by a thin skin or film of wood, so to speak, which in forming the plugs was left for such purpose. Fig. 3 is a box containing our plugs packed therein for market. Fig. 4 is a board with finished surface provided with two plugs. Fig. 5 is a vertical section in the line 90 cc of Fig. 4. Fig. 6 is a front view of a circular saw by means of which the plugs are cut out of asolid board. Fig. 7 isa perspective view of a nail-set, by means of which a suitable seat or depression for the reception of a plug is made in a board to be plugged. Fig. 8 is a perspective view and central section of a board provided with a seat or depression for the reception of a plug; and Fig. 9 illustrates plugs sawed with beveled sides of diamond shape and one of many ornamental designs which may be produced with the plugs inserted into a suitable wood base.

The letter A in the drawings represents a board or block provided with V-shaped grooves a a, cut at right angles nearly through the wood by means of a saw, 13, especially coir structed for that purpose. The grooves a we prefer to have a greater distance from each other than the grooves a, by which they are intersected at right angles, thereby producing a card or nest of plugs, 0, (shown in Fig. 2,) the plugs being of an oblong form with a rootangular top surface and base and are pyran1idal frustums, and the same having their grain running longitudinally of the plugs and parallel with the grain of the wood from which they are produced.

In order at will to produce suitable seats or depressions in a board, D, which is to be provided with our plugs O, we use a nail-set, E, having an end portion, 6, shaped like the plug 0. WVith this nail-set we drive, for example, the head fof a nail, F, into the board D until the portion 6 of the nail-set enters the wood and there forms the required depression cl. Into this depression the plug is wedged and may be further fastened therein with glue.

'The surface of the plug is then made flush with the surface of the board by any proper means. These inserted plugs being made to conform in their surface grain and shade of color to that of the board into which they are driven, will, when the board receives its last finish, either not be seen or scarcely be perceptible to the eye.

Beside the covering of nail-heads and the plugging of nail-holes, other imperfectionssuch as minute indentations, small decayed or imperfect places, or stains--rnay be obliterated from the surface of a board without marring either the design of its grain or shade of color.

These plugs are made of different sizes and of pyramidal sides of exactly corresponding taper, as shown, and so may be driven into their seats with a wcdging action, thereby rendering the same self-retaining after having been driven, and are made of different kinds of wood in order to match the wood or mate rial into which they are to be inserted.

These plugs, which constitute pyramidal frustums, are assorted according to kind of wood and size, and are packed in boxes of suitable determined capacity and sold to the publie so packed and ready for use; and they may be so packed either in sheets of plugs, as signified by Fig. 2, or they may be entirely detached from each other by breaking the wood film or skin of wood which holds them together after their V-shaped grooves a a have been out by the saw B and then packed in their separated condition.

The plugs made according to our invention being of oblong form,will very nearly conform to the outline of the hole made by driving a ten or twelve penny nail into a plank, and so at their base present a proper entering end for such holes, and thus may be driven without first using the nail-set shown in Fig. 7 to reform such hole.

In Figs. 2 and 3 the connecting-films of wood which hold the plugs 0 together are indicated at g g. The saw B, which we have shown in Fig. ,6 and with which we are enabled to form the plugs G of exact uniformity, we do not claim in this application, but which forms the subject-matter of our patent, No. 354,325, granted on the 14th day of December, 1886. We will state that to facilitate the cutting out the sheets of plugs 0 (shown in the figures) we utilize agang of these saws, B, each gang having its saws set apart a proper distance to determine the size of the plugs when the same have been cut, one gang of such saws being used to cut the grooves a and another gang to out the grooves a. If, however, the sheet of pyramidal plugs is manufactured to present a true square at top and base, then one gang of saws, as B, only need be used to out said grooves.

We have specially described the pyramidal plugs as for usein plugging nail-holes and otherwisedamaged portions of wood, and also have described these plugs with rectangular bases and pyramidal sides; but we contemplate manufacturing plugs of different-shaped bases-as, for instance, with diamond-shaped bases, as illustrated in Fig. 9. Such pyramidal plugs will answer all the purposes of the rectangular plugs, and in some instances a better purpose, they breaking the grain less, showing a greater uniformity in wood finished in natural color, and they cover with paint better, and by a combination of the plugsof different forms or corresponding forms and of different-colored woods or corresponding-colored wood ornamental designs of inlaid work may be readily produced. In some instances the plugs will be made with only a very slight under beve1;-but the most useful construction is that shown in Fig. 1.

What we claim is- 1. The new manufacture consisting of pyramidal plugs of wood having bases the outlines of which are parallel and the grain of the wood of the plugs parallel with the grain of the block or board from which they are produced, substantially as described.

a 2. The new manufactureconsisting of a nest of pyramidal frustum-plugs having intersecting V-shaped grooves between the rows of plugs of a depth less than the thickness of the board or block from which they are made, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of two witnesses.

7 JOHN R. LITTLE. GALVIN T. STODDARD.

Witnesses:

PHIL FERGUSON, E. W. INGRAM. 

